for the forest cantons; but let not the aristocrats of the towns fear that a wider franchise would end their influence, for a people dependent on pastoral pursuits would always cling to great families rather than to electoral assemblies:  let these be elected on a fairly wide basis.  Then again, what ready wit flashed forth in his retort to a deputy who objected to the Bernese Oberland forming part of the Canton of Berne:  “Where do you take your cattle and your cheese?”—­“To Berne.”—­“Whence do you get your grain, cloth, and iron?”—­“From Berne.”—­“Very well:  ’To Berne, from Berne’—­you consequently belong to Berne.”  The reply is a good instance of that canny materialism which he so victoriously opposed to feudal chaos and monarchical ineptitude.

Indeed, in matters great as well as small his genius pierced to the heart of a problem:  he saw that the democratic unionists had failed from the rigidity of their centralization, while the federals had given offence by insufficiently recognizing the new passion for social equality.[228] He now prepared to federalize Switzerland on a moderately democratic basis; for a policy of balance, he himself being at the middle of the see-saw, was obviously required by good sense as well as by self-interest.  Witness his words to Roederer on this subject: 

“While satisfying the generality, I cause the patricians to tremble.  In giving to these last the appearance of power, I oblige them to take refuge at my side in order to find protection.  I let the people threaten the aristocrats, so that these may have need of me.  I will give them places and distinctions, but they will hold them from me.  This system of mine has succeeded in France.  See the clergy.  Every day they will become, in spite of themselves, more devoted to my government than they had foreseen.”

How simple and yet how subtle is this statecraft; simplicity of aim, with subtlety in the choice of means:  this is the secret of his success.

After much preliminary work done by French commissioners and the Swiss deputies in committee, the First Consul summed up the results of their labours in the Act of Mediation of February 19th, 1803, which constituted the Confederation in nineteen cantons, the formerly subject districts now attaining cantonal dignity and privileges.  The forest cantons kept their ancient folk-moots, while the town cantons such as Berne, Zuerich, and Basel were suffered to blend their old institutions with democratic customs, greatly to the chagrin of the unionists, at whose invitation Bonaparte had taken up the work of mediation.